Despite 11th-hour apprehension from some student groups that pay cuts approved for student leaders next year will be unfair, the committee that allocates student money finalized a budget March 17 that includes a reduction in the number of paid positions some groups will receive.
Although members of the Programs
Finance Committee discussed amending the stipend model used in the budget, which includes cuts of up to three-fourths of some student leaders’ pay, the committee didn’t create an amendment during the break. The PFC will instead include a budget note asking next year’s ASUO Student Senate to address individual groups’ concerns about pay cuts, perhaps funding some of the cut money with
surplus funds.
If the Senate approves the budget on Wednesday, groups will receive about
$5.23 million, a 6.88 percent increase from last year. The PFC reopened its budget March 16 to adjust a discrepancy between the numbers it originally approved March 4 and final numbers calculated by committee members.
The budget falls just below the 7 percent cap on growth allowed by Green Tape Notebook rules.
Representatives of several multicultural groups voiced concerns to the PFC at a March 16 meeting that the pay cuts unfairly affect international students and students of color.
Multicultural Center Co-Director Maria Hwang called the cuts a “major structural change,” adding that they would lead to the “gentrification of the (student) unions.” She said some student leaders depend on stipends for essentials like rent and food.
Hwang said the cut also “disproportionately affects disadvantaged students.”
“In times when the administration is working on diversity, (the cuts are) contrary to how the administration and University in general hopes to be a more diverse university,” she said.
Hwang presented a summary of several groups’ demands at the March 17 meeting, including a demand that the PFC put together an amended budget to be submitted during an emergency Senate meeting tonight. The demands also included setting up a “slush fund” that would allow an interim committee to disperse stipends to student groups and increasing communication between the PFC and the groups.
Hwang said PFC members agreed to create an amendment.
“It was our understanding that it would be ready on Monday,” she said.
But PFC member Jael Anker-Lagos said the PFC agreed only to work on an amendment. She said the committee decided not to form an amendment after crunching numbers during the break.
The Senate is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting tonight to discuss a potential amendment. Hwang added that she and other student leaders didn’t have adequate input in the PFC process.
“I feel it wasn’t really done out in public,” she said. “There was not dialogue and no input from
student leaders.”
But PFC Chairwoman Persis Pohowalla said she hoped groups were informed about all of the PFC’s earlier meetings at which stipends were discussed. She said group
representatives only came to one meeting, adding that she sent an
e-mail to student groups about
the changes.
“Clearly not enough people were able to express their opinions about it,” she said. “This input would have been so valuable at the time we were doing this.”
She added that the PFC was “under a huge time crunch,” prohibiting further work on the budget.
“It just feasibly can’t happen,” she said.
African Student Association member Haben Woldu said programming is important, but groups can’t function without adequate leadership. She also said it isn’t guaranteed that next year’s Senate will address the stipends, so the current PFC should make changes now.
Pohowalla said that stipends have been “really inconsistent for the past three to four years” and implementing the new stipend model creates a consistent budget.
According to an e-mail from ASUO Administrative Assistant Molly Bowling, a meeting will be held at 4 p.m. today in the EMU Walnut Room for students to learn about the stipend changes.
Hwang said she expected to learn about an amendment then, but Pohowalla said no amendment will
be presented.
Some students previously expressed concerns that switching the stipends from payroll to scholarships would affect financial aid or be off-limits for international students. Anker-Lagos said the new stipends, in the form of resource aid from the Business Affairs
Office, will not adversely affect
international students. She said the new payment requires a Social Security number, but she will inquire today about the eligibility of
international students.

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